


Tears Made Bitter

by Estirose



Series: Taking Up a Tape [7]
Category: Kamen Rider Drive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-02
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-07 06:13:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4252416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets set in the "Taking Up a Tape" universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. By The Bitter Tears

**Author's Note:**

> Apparently this universe doesn't know when to stop. The first ficlet is set in the future of "As Giving It A Hope" and features how the world may end up like if Heart and co really did manage to turn Kiriko and Gou to their side. Previously posted to my Dreamwidth, and linked in the comments for "As Giving It A Hope".

“What do you mean, you don't want a Core?” I started at my friend Natsuo, not sure as to what had gotten into him. Natsuo was actually Organic Cobra-type number GRA, slightly older than me, but we use human names of sorts until we are implanted with our Cores and start going by our Roidmude designations.

“I don't.” Natsuo was frowning. “I want to live, in this body, for the rest of my life.”

It made no sense to me. We were born, started on our path towards being Roidmude at age seven, were implanted with Cores at age twenty, and then our organic bodies died – Burned Out, we call it - by about thirty. That was how life went, after all. Our Roidmude kin saw no point in us suffering in human bodies when we could be reborn in full Roidmude ones.

There were to be nearly seventeen thousand of us, eventually, enough to match the intended forty thousand of our fully mechanical kin. Enough to give them an idea of what emotions were and the experience that came from feeling them.

The Roidmude needed our emotions, but we needed them too. Unlike Natsuo, I had no intention of going rogue. I was content with the life I had, and I was looking forward to the Core and shedding this body of mine.

“That's not how it works.” I'd heard, vaguely, of those of us who had gone wrong and had to be caught in order to be corrected. Ones that were like Natsuo, who didn't want a Core but the Roidmude gave them one anyways. It fixed them, that Core, and it was maybe why some people fought so hard against it.

Personally, I wanted to fly someday and hoped that my Core would burn out my body soon.

“Maybe that's how it should. Leave the Cores to people like you who actually want them.” He turned away, leaving me a good view of his ponytail. I wished I could reassure him that he wouldn't lose himself in Implantation, that he could still keep his looks. But he wouldn't listen to me. I could tell he didn't want to hear. “You saw how Ami Burned Out at twenty-one.”

Ami – her designation was earlier than ours, GPT, a Cobra-type like Natsuo – had always been there for us. She was the one that had assured me that even if we died, our non-organic kin would make sure that we'd come back. She had indeed come back, smiling as if nothing had happened, and continued to be there for us.

Except Natsuo had started avoiding her. I understood why now. He couldn't accept what he would become where everybody else understood Burning Out was not an end, but a beginning.

In our history classes, there are stories of the first of us, Organic Spider-type AAA and Organic Cobra-type AAB. They'd grown up in a human world, and so they thought they were human. In fact, they fought against their Roidmude kin because the humans told them that Roidmude were evil. It was their Cores that fixed them. They were able to infiltrate the human resistance and destroy it from within, paving the way towards the world we live in now.

I wonder if they fought their Burning Outs. If they tried to live as humans instead of accepting what they were, even with Roidmude help.

“She wanted to,” I told him. Sometimes one got lucky, and Burn Out happened fast.

“I know.” Natsuo shook his head. “And I'll never understand that.”

Maybe he wouldn't. Maybe he would get there in time. We had four more years before Implantation, and if I spoke to somebody, he could be fixed.

But I couldn't. Natsuo was always one to find things out the hard way, and this time was no diffferent. So I kept silent, and for his sake, hoped he figured out the truth.


	2. Ready To Tell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heart discovers an unexpected but delightful side effect of rescuing Kiriko and Gou.

They need time to rest, so Heart doesn't bother them. Time to rest, recover, get used to themselves. They won't stray now, not with Medic's repairs on their programming. Programming that Gou has, despite his protests. 

Kiriko struggled to get away, much to Heart's worry. Still trying to get back to the humans that were using her. It is why Heart doesn't regret taking the two of them away by force; they would have continued their destructive ways if he hadn't. His instincts had been right, after all.

He has to protect his own people, even if they sometimes don't want to be protected.

The door opens to his left. Kiriko looks pale, tired, probably from Brain's poison. He is worried, but reminds himself that her Core is working now, and if needs be he'll call in Chase and make sure that she isn't in pain anymore. "Heart-sama?" she asks hesitantly.

"Sit down." That little quirk of hers is always endearing. "You're still recovering from what Brain had to do."

"I know." She is bright. He regrets not being able to raise her, but she still turned out well, corrupted programming or no. "There are things I have to tell you."

"Rest first." He smiles at her. "It can't be that urgent." Actually, it might be, but her health comes first.

"I know all that you need to know about Krim Steinbert and his operation." She sits down, much to his relief, and then the impact of her words hits him and he wants to laugh.

Krim corrupted Heart's children, and now it's going to be his undoing. Kiriko and Gou have worked on Krim's side long enough to know everything that Heart needs to know to defeat Krim and his puppet. With their knowledge, Heart can break the human resistance, ensuring the safety of the rest of his people as they evolve into the Promised Number.

Heart wishes he could have spared Kiriko and Gou the pain of growing up human, but at least they have infiltrated the human resistance the way nobody else could have.

But the news can wait. They need to rest, these two, for they are both mostly organic and like most humans, they get tired easily. They've both spent a lot of energy today, Heart knows.

"I can use that," he says. "But I'm told that you both need to rest for a few days first. Tell me as you recover." That's a good compromise. He can make sure they're okay, and they'll give him the information they need.

Maybe it's a little bit of a lie about the rest, but Kiriko needs it, as no doubt Gou does, and Heart has time to put their knowledge into action and remake the world for both their kinds.


	3. Wide Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kiriko is good at figuring out what to say, even as a little girl.

Kiriko looks up at their semi-captor with wide eyes, projecting innocence and ignorance. She knows that he means well, or thinks he means well, and at least he is kind. But she and Gou don't belong among the Roidmudes, no matter how much Heart would like them to. 

She also knows he would like to do something to make them even more Roidmude. He and his followers talk about installing something called a Core in each of them. It has something to do with Kiriko's legs, the ones that are really strong, and Gou's arm, which helps him a little. They are Roidmude even if Kiriko and Gou are not, and Kiriko knows this is why Heart accepts them when he wouldn't accept other humans.

Both of them are scared of Heart and the others, though Kiriko tries not to seem like it. She smiles up at him because that makes him happy and makes him leave them alone. Alone means that they aren't addressed by their weird, three letter Roidmude names.

"I didn't mean to scare you, Heart-sama," she says. "We just wanted to go outside for a while, and we couldn't find anybody, and Gou - AAB - ran out anyway." Actually, they'd been trying to leave, and it had been bad luck that Heart had returned home at that moment. "And I followed! Just to get him to come back."

"I know, AAA." He kneels down so that they were almost at the same height. "But next time, tell one of us that he's run out. 001 can find him better if we know right away that he's gone. You don't want to be found by the humans, do you?"

Kiriko shakes her head. She did want to be found by a human police officer, but she can't tell Heart that. He'd panic and she'd never go outside again. She was sure that Heart wouldn't hurt her or Gou deliberately, but she couldn't say the same for the others.

"Good." Heart gives her a hug. "We'll do some data-gathering later, all right? I have things to do."

"Yes, Heart-sama." She smiles back at him. It is gathering data, after all. Data on how to get away without him knowing, on how to avoid being caught again. Even if Heart means well, she really can't live like this, and neither can Gou.

And as Gou's big sister, she has to save him, no matter how scary or weird it all is. Because this is what big sisters do for their younger siblings.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By pure luck, Chase ran across AAA, giving Heart hope that he might get the two partly-organic Roidmudes back.

"These things confuse me." Chase was staring at his weapon like it would give him the answers... or the dangerous memories of the time before, when he'd been a servant of the humans. For Chase's own sake, Heart knew grimly, he must never remember what had happened.

"They often are confusing, my friend." Heart put a hand on Chase's shoulder. "Just do what we ask, and you'll find your way." He would find a place among the others, despite the handicap of not being able to evolve like the rest of them.

"I remember...." Chase trailed off, confused, and Heart studied his newest friend. "There was this human. A woman police officer. She had Roidmude parts. But I don't remember where I met her."

Heart grabbed him. "You met AAA!" He eased up a moment after remembering his own strength. But it was something... somewhere in Chase's memories was AAA, probably working for Krim or something like that. And Chase had met her!

But it was still too dangerous to let Chase remember, no matter how frustrating it was for him to lose her once again.

Or had he? "Chase. Does the Kamen Rider have a partner?" Maybe Krim was arrogant and had let AAA wander about.

"Yes. He always has a female human with him. Do you want to see her?"

"Give me all the data you have on her. No, actually, give it to Brain." Brain could tell him if this was AAA, if Chase had accidentally encountered her unknowing.

Chase merely nodded, and Heart summoned Brain to his side. Brain took the data from Chase, dismissing their Enforcer. "This is undoubtedly AAA," he said briefly. "The energy signature she gives out matches the readings I took from AAA fifteen years ago."

"Excellent." She still loved him, that he knew. He just hoped that it was enough to get her to come home with him, once she remembered what side she was supposed to be on. 

"She may not be recoverable," Brain warned him. "If she has been brainwashed, it would be impossible to fix. She doesn't have a Core."

In other words, Heart realized, she might be lost to them, and the same with AAB. "If she had a Core...."

"I doubt that installing one would work at this point." Brain looked sad, reflecting Heart's emotion.

"I wish Medic was around. She could fix it so that both of them could come back to us."

Brain smiled bitterly. "Yes, but she still remains dormant."

"Then we'll have to fix that." Medic could repair the two of them, Heart was sure of that.

In the meantime, he could at least ask AAA if she wanted to come home. It wouldn't hurt to ask, after all, at least until Medic came back. If AAA resisted, he'd leave her alone until he was sure he could save her.

It wasn't a wonderful solution, but it would have to do.


	5. The Key to Listening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 001 arrives to solve one of Heart's problems, as well as conduct his own tests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This series was started before we knew of certain of Gou's abilities, thus Gou is affected by something he wouldn't be in canon. Also, this occurs 15 years in the past. I have a feeling I've done interesting things to the timeline, so might as well do more alterations.

"AAB," Heart said reasonably, turning to the younger one of the two, "Why did you run out?" He knew better than to go into danger, when a human policeman might question why a lone youngster was doing out in a warehouse district.

"Because I wanna run." AAB was kicking at the dirt. His sister was biting her lip, and Heart wished he could reassure her that he and 001 would do anything to get AAB back if he disappeared.

"You do know what the humans will do to you if they find you?" Heart asked, hoping the young one would understand the dangers of running about loose. Even if 001 said he could find their missing number, it didn't mean that the humans might mistreat him anyway. "You could get hurt, or worse, and there's no Core to protect you."

"Don't wanna Core." AAB didn't bother to look up at Heart. 

"Of course you do." He'd had this discussion with both siblings before, and he hated to say it, but it was a little bit frustrating for them not to understand why it was so important for the two of them to have Cores just like any other Roidmudes. 001 had suggested that perhaps it was because their mental abilities hadn't matured yet, and so they didn't understand why Heart wanted them to be implanted.

AAA took her brother's hand. "I don't want one either, but we should listen to Heart-sama." 

AAB looked up, only to glare at his sister. Heart was relieved that even though AAA didn't agree with him, she was at least able to listen to him. 

And then AAB slipped out of AAA's grasp, heading towards the door to the outside. AAA chased after him.

That moment, the door to the outside did open, but not because of AAB. 001 stood framed in the doorway, his confusion turning towards amusement as he studied the sight before him. "Having a little bit of trouble, Heart?"

"AAB is not listening to me." As he talked, AAB continued to dash towards the open doorway, only to be caught by 001 and picked up.

"I should fix that, then." He closed the door with his other hand and walked into the room. He set AAB down. "You don't want to go outside without one of us. The humans will take you apart if you do."

Apparently, AAB was as susceptible to 001's power as humans were, because he stopped fighting.

"He's not immune," 001 said casually, and maybe he sounded a little disappointed. 

"Gou?" AAA asked, reverting to using her brother's human name. Heart would remind her about proper names later, but right at the moment he was more relieved that AAB was no longer trying to run out the door.

"You don't want to go outside without one of us either," 001 suggested to AAA, and she blinked at him. 

"I don't." AAA started nodding in complete agreement with 001's words.

001 patted AAA on the head. "For a moment, I thought she might be immune, but she is not."

"You haven't found any humans that are immune." Humans were susceptible to 001's suggestions, and apparently AAA and AAB were no different for all that they had Roidmude parts.

"No. I doubt there are any." 001 gave Heart a smile. "But I had to test the theory."

AAA was looking up at 001, absorbing the knowledge. She tended to do that. She'd be an excellent scout and infiltrator someday when she was older - maybe even before she reached human physical maturity. 

But that would be later. 

"At least they'll be safe now." Heart reached out and took AAB's hand, and was gratified to see that he didn't resist. AAA reached out for Heart's other hand, without being asked, but she did realize things faster than her brother.

Maybe it would take them time to accept the fact that they were getting Cores, but that didn't matter. They were safe, and Heart had all the time in the world now.


	6. Braiding Hair

Despite everything else that should occupy Heart, he found himself opening the door to where AAA was recuperating. He felt a certain amount of guilt; he should be watching out for the rest of his people, making sure they evolved to the point where they needed to evolve, despite human interference.

Instead, he was making sure that AAA was okay, despite the fact that she was partially disabled until Brain and Medic figured out what had gone wrong with the implantation of her Core.

To his surprise, AAA was sitting up in bed, attempting to braid her hair, moving slowly because of the disruptions to her body. It was possibly a nervous gesture, a human tic that she'd picked up somewhere. She looked up at him. "Heart-sama?" she asked.

He sat down next to her. "If you have a hair tie, I'll braid your hair for you." If she didn't, maybe Medic had one. Or maybe Heart would have to go out and get her one.

"In my purse. I don't know where it is." She at least put her hands down flat on the bed, as if to balance herself.

Medic had been adamant that she should keep AAA's purse, just because it might discourage AAA from leaving. Heart was rather glad for this, because he didn't want Medic to have to reprogram her if she didn't have to. If AAA tried to leave, then Heart knew that he'd have to keep her from going back to the humans enslaving her, until Medic could fix the faulty programming. He didn't want to have to do it, and so far AAA had seen reason. She didn't want to be tracked any more than he wanted her to be tracked by the humans.

"I'll find your hair tie for you." He gave her a smile. "Don't worry."

She gave him a slight nod, and he moved off. It wasn't long before he found AAA's purse, and with it her hair tie and a hairbrush. Walking back into the room, he saw that she was trying to stretch, despite the obvious pain.

"You found it?" she asked, obviously surprised.

"Yes." He sat down next to her. "Let me see what I can do." He took the brush, working to make her hair easier to deal with before he started braiding. Putting the tie around his wrist, he started carefully on the braid, making sure that no strands of hair got loose to cause problems.

She seemed to relax as he worked, for which he was relieved. He knew how to braid hair, but he didn't need to use the skill much, as Medic's hair never came undone and he wouldn't touch a human that way normally. If AAA hadn't been a part of his own kind, he wouldn't be doing this for her, either.

"I don't know why you've always considered us Roidmude," she said. "After all, it's just my legs and Gou's arm."

It was a calmer, more mature version of what she'd expressed when she was less evolved. She still retained the strange tendency to call AAB by his human name, though.

"Because you are. That you're partly organic doesn't matter to me." He gave her a smile that she couldn't see. "You and AAB... you were experiments just like us, with the same creator and technology."

"Like you, but not like you." She gave a miniscule shake of her head, enough to fray some of his efforts. He unbound the braid and started again.

"Keep your head still. But yes, in some ways not like us. Not that it matters." He smiled again at her, gently working the hair back into the braid.

"I don't think that Gou and I could accept that when we were younger." 

"I know." He wasn't sure she had really accepted it even now. But like many years ago, she was still gathering data and evolving. "I'm glad that Chase recognized you as one of his own." Admittedly, it had been through a fragment of a memory in a roundabout way, but Chase had recognized her.

AAA almost moved her head, but realized that this might mess up his braiding again. "Chase did?"

"Yes. Someday there may be more like you, but for the moment, you and AAB are the only organic ones among our numbers." Not part of the 108, true, just like Chase wasn't. It didn't make Heart love them less.

She tilted her head down, just a little, but it didn't disrupt Heart's braiding. "I don't think there should be more of us."

He froze for a moment, then realized she meant her partly-organic variant, not all of Roidmudekind. Not that it made much of a difference, because there should be as far as he was concerned. Properly raised partly organic beings, ones that would help the others evolve. "Gather more data before you make a statement like that, AAA." 

She was silent, and her finished her braid, looping the elastic band of the tie around the bottom of the braid until the whole thing was secure. "There we go." He studied her face. She was obviously thinking about what he said.

"Thank you. I think I'll go rest now." She had to process what she did have, and he wouldn't stop her from that. He gave her a smile, getting up. He wouldn't disturb her for a while. She did need to rest, too.

And he had things to do, Roidmudes to help evolve. He gave her a small wave as she got into bed, mind already on what he needed to do next.


	7. Drifting Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> POV swap for "As Giving It A Hope".

"Neither of you are safe with these people, AAB." Heart seemed to come to a decision. It wasn't the one that Gou would have preferred. "They put a tracker in Kiriko, and I would not be surprised if they put one in you, too."

"That was Kiriko's choice." Tomari was firm in his words. "After you found her again."

Heart cocked his head for a moment. "Probably due to Krim's interference." He leaned forward, picking Gou up with little effort. Weak and without the use of his right arm, Gou couldn't really fight back. "I will find her and get her to safety."

"Kiriko and Gou aren't Roidmude." Krim chimed in, much to Gou's surprise. "And I will defend their right to be what they choose to be."

"Ah, but they are." Heart shifted Gou, who was trying to fight back. He still had legs and a left arm, after all. Even if they felt like they were made of noodles, he could use them. "Experiments, just like us, with the same technology. I was the one that took care of them when they were left orphaned, all alone...."

"Because of you." Tomari moved in again.

"And then you took them and tried to convince them that their own kind was the enemy." Heart got up, ignoring Gou's protests. "No more."

Despite their best efforts, Gou noticed, Tomari and Krim were unable to stop Heart from taking off with him. Heart put him carefully down in the trunk of a red convertible. "I'm sorry, AAB," he said. "I don't want anything to happen before we get home."

Gou could feel the car going forward. He tried to keep count of the turns they made, how far they went when they went straight. If he could get loose, he might be able to retrace the route.

Finally, the car stopped. Heart fetched Gou out of the trunk and they went into a perfectly ordinary home. There was a low table inside, with blood on it, and Gou knew precisely who the blood belonged to. "Heart-sama! I see you brought him."

"Yes. Where do you want me to put him?" Gou couldn't see Heart's expression, but he sounded happy that Medic was about to do terrible things to Gou.

"On the table," she said. "We should take most of his clothes off, though."

Despite Gou's best efforts, he was stripped down to his underwear and put on the table. He couldn't see much, but he could tell that there were restraints being put on his wrists and ankles. Brain applied something that made him feel numb all over. Then there was talking - Medic and Brain, about how to cut him open, and then Heart and 001, something probably to do about finding his sister. He couldn't do much about either at the moment, so he concentrated on Medic and Brain's conversation. If he could remember what had been done to him, he could help Krim and the others reverse the process on both of them. Or at least maybe Krim could.

He soon figured out that the whole thing was not going to be fun. They were going to expose one of the nerves in his spinal column, maybe near his brain, and put in an artificial connection between the nerve and the base for the Core. And then they'd install the Core, wiring it somehow to the base and the nerve in some permanent way. At that point, he'd be unconscious while they transferred the functions of his brain to the Core. His Core, if he wanted to think of it that way, which he definitely did not.

The only good thing that the Core would do for him was get him addressed by his proper name instead of his Roidmude one. But it would also kill him eventually, unless he could remember enough to give Krim when he got out of there.

Gou heard Medic tell Heart that they were ready. There was a pressure on his spine, near his neck. He couldn't feel much, but he bet that Medic or Brain was cutting him open.

He closed his eyes, just so if his blood joined his sister's, he didn't have to look at it.

***

After a while, he realized he must have dozed off. He could also feel again, somewhat, enough to know someone was holding his hand. He opened his eyes to confirm that it was Heart. "Welcome back," Heart said with a smile.

"Lemme go!" It was futile, he realized, but maybe they'd listen now that he had his precious Core.

"Not until we fix your corrupted code," Heart told him. Gou was about to protest, but Brain came in at that moment to tell Heart that they'd located Kiriko. He had to get out of there and warn Tomari and Kiriko.

"I don't have code, you fucking idiot!" He switched to English, knowing the protest was futile. They thought he had code, so he had to have code.

"Oh, you have code." Brain was smiling at him. "It won't take much to fix it. I believe Medic's volunteered."

And with that, he and Heart were out of there, to find Kiriko.

Medic gave Gou a vicious smile as soon as the others were gone, touching the back of his neck. It hurt, now that the numbing effect had worn off. There was a sense that she was accessing something in his brain, or the digital replica that was the Core, examining each bit for what she needed.

"Now, should I leave you conscious as I change your code, or let you sleep through it?"

"Does it fucking matter?" Gou asked. "Even if you change it while I'm awake, you won't change me." He knew if he could keep awake, he could resist whatever Medic thought she was going to do to him.

She laughed. "You're programmed to fight against what Banno did. Let's see what happens when your motives are changed."

There was a mental poking, and then Gou wondered why he was resisting. After all, his father's work had been beneficial to the Roidmudes. Which he couldn't argue with, but still, something was wrong. Something told him that the Roidmudes were not right. After a moment, he realized that Medic's work had negated 001's. If he could hold on to that, he could still resist.

Medic's smile had turned to a pout, and there was another tickle in his Core as she worked on it. Some part of him wondered why he was resisting - after all, Heart was right and he was a Roidmude. The rest of him was still arguing with that part of him, trying to remember that he was human despite what Medic was doing to him.

"You're a bad boy, AAB," Medic said. She sorted more of his Core, and he could feel the argumentative parts of him starting to be buried in the data that was him - wait, he didn't have data, did he? But whatever it was, he could feel the complacent parts start to win. 

And then he wondered why she considered him bad at all, and then remembered that up until a few minutes ago, he hadn't understood. He had fought against Roidmudes, killed them, instead of working on producing more. That was what he should be doing. He wasn't at his father's level, but together, he and Kiriko might be able to make more Roidmudes, give them the forces that they needed to win the war against the humans.

"Now you can sleep, as Heart-sama wished," she said, and he found himself losing consciousness, as if he was a computer - or a tablet - being put into sleep mode. Which made sense. He was a machine, after all, as a Roidmude.

Maybe, he realized as he drifted off, maybe Heart would choose to free him from this body. But it was only a fleeting thought, and soon he was asleep.


End file.
